13th Jul 2013 - 14th Jul 2013 -
As we left France behind and entered Italy we could see a change in the landscape, we headed straight for Pisa and its famous Leaning Tower. Pretty much the whole way we hugged the coast lines we curved round the mountainside, the journey took around 4 hours.
I have been to Pisa a few times before so we managed to beat the crowds, we parked in a near by street, which was a pay meter, and walked along to the site, we got the obligatory photos, looked around and then as quick as that got on our way to our next stop...
Next we drove to the near by Lucca just under half an hour away, a place we knew of from an episode of Top Gear (where James May got lost and ended up on the city walls) it was a quaint, pretty little place, and then on the way out we got lost too! Our GPS was sending us in circles, turned out she took us down a dirt track with a fence, beyond the fence was a highway toll, it was the old road, made us giggle, but we were still lost.
From Lucca it was just over an hour to our destination for the night- Florence.
We booked our hotel outside of the city centre as we presumed it would be hard to drive and park, our hotel had free parking too, we jumped on a local bus and headed into the cente.
We had dinner right outside the famous Duomo and naturally went for the option of pizza and bolognaise (the only food we would eat for the duration of our Italy sector!!) We then took a stroll around the lovely, pretty areas of Florence. We sat at the river bank looking at the famous Ponte Vecchio Bridge and watched a thunder storm miles away.
The next morning we left Florence and on the way out headed to Piazza Michaelangelo, up on the hillside a fantastic viewing area.
